US \su * 






' 



,f tze-i. J^? 



DR. JOHNS'S ADDRESS. 









. 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



AMERICAN WHIG AND CLIOSOPHIC SOCIETIES 



COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY, 



SEPTEMBER 29, 1840. 



By the Rev. JOHN JOHNS, D. D. 

OF BALTIMORE. 



PRINCETON: 

PRINTED BY JOHN BOGART. 

1840. 







NEW YORK PUBL. MBEu 
IK EXCHANGE. 



i 



Extract from the Minutes op the American Whig So- 
ciety at the Annual Meeting, Sept. 30, 1840. 

Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to tender to the 
Rev. John Johns, D. D. the respectful acknowledgements of 
this Society for the eloquent and appropriate address delivered 
by him on the 29th instant, and to request that he will furnish 
a copy of the same for publication. 

RICHARD S. FIELD, Esq. ) 

WM. C. ALEXANDER, Esq. V Committee. 

JOHN T. NIXON. S 



Extract from the Minutes^of the Cliosophic Society 
at the Annual Meeting, Sept. 30, 1840. 

Resolved, That the thanks of the Cliosophic Society be 
presented to the Rev. Dr. John Johns, of Baltimore, for the 
eloquent address delivered by him, on the 29th instant, before 
the American Whig and Cliosophic Societies, and that a Com- 
mittee be appointed to request him to furnish a copy thereof 
for publication. 

Prof. JOHN MACLEAN,) 

Prof. A. B. DOD, V Committee. 

D. N. BOGART, Esq. ) 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/addressdelivered02john 



ADDRESS. 



Perhaps there are few scenes more deeply and 
vividly impressed on the mind and heart than those 
which are connected with a college course. In all the 
preparatory stages of education, this period is fondly 
anticipated as a season of interesting and distinguished 
advancement ; as a transition from the humbler and 
more puerile occupations of the academy, to the 
higher pursuits and more dignified intercourse of the 
student's life ; as a release from the leading strings, 
and a cessation of the supervision required by early 
youth and entire inexperience, and as the commence- 
ment of personal responsibility and greater indepen- 
dence. It is not surprising, therefore, that it should 
be anticipated with ardent aspirations, and entered 
upon with no small degree of self-complacency. It 
marks the close of one, and the beginning of another 
and a very important stage of life. And whilst it 
lasts, there is a susceptibility and readiness to impres- 
sion on the part of those who pass it ; a novelty and 
manliness in the intercourse maintained, and an excite- 
ment connected with the duties prescribed, which en- 
sure to the occurrences of this spring-time of life, a 
place and a permanency of possession in the heart, not 
easily disputed by the events of later years ; and after 



this season has closed, and those who passed it in com- 
pany have separated and engaged in the services of their 
respective professions, there is no period to which they 
revert with livelier pleasure ; there are no incidents 
which they relate with more zest and hilarity, than 
those which marked the college course. Meet where 
they may, in after life, the recollection of their early as- 
sociation forms a bond of sympathy which few fail to 
feel, and to feel with peculiar satisfaction, whilst the 
remembered facts and forms and friendships furnish 
materials for conversation, in which they seem to an- 
nihilate the interval which separates them from those 
scenes, and which almost enables them to renew their 
youth. The college roll comes to mind, and is run 
over in friendly inquisitiveness, with as much ease 
and accuracy as if they had not ceased to answer to its 
regular calls. The entries which they had often 
walked are traversed in their order, and the rooms are 
named by number, and their occupants are talked of 
with a familiarity which would seem to imply that 
the speakers and their companions still lived there. 
All these things, and a thousand other similar illustra- 
tions which will readily occur to every true-hearted 
alumnus, discover the depth and the durability of the 
impressions produced by a college course, and prove 
that their obliteration is very tardy, if not impossible. 
In conversing occasionally with those who had long 
since graduated, I have been amused to hear them 
say that even their very dreams have continued to 
borrow from the scenes and incidents to which I allude, 
renewing for them the fellowships and the interests, 
the embarrassments and the successes of a student's 



life, perpetuating by the spontaneous action of the 
mind, during the hours of repose, thoughts and feelings 
which the pressure of daily duties seemed to have 
smothered and destroyed. A diploma may become 
illegible — its broad seal may crumble into indistinct- 
ness, but a college feeling truly imbibed is indestruct- 
ible. I verily believe that could the class with which 
the speaker graduated be assembled on this ground, 
we should still almost fancy ourselves the proprietors 
of those rooms, and regard you, my young friends, as 
intruders. 

Were I to consult my own inclinations on the 
present occasion, they would determine me to dwell 
upon the pleasing recollections of the few years which 
it was my privilege to spend in these halls of science 
— to bear my testimony to the worth of those excellent 
men who presided over our pursuits, and to sketch 
the subsequent history of some of those companions 
with whom I had the happiness to be here associated. 
But as such reminiscences would scarcely meet your 
views, in the exercise which you have assigned me, 
I proceed to submit for your consideration a subject of 
more general interest: — The attractiveness of 

TRUTH, AND THE PLEASURE AFFORDED BY ITS PURSUIT 
AND ATTAINMENT, AS INCENTIVES TO INTELLECTUAL 
ACTION. 

Between truth and the human mind there is cer- 
tainly a real and very important affinity. Bring them 
fairly within range, and it requires some strong dis- 
turbing force to prevent their union. This union 
once consummated, and the experience which it pro- 
duces will awaken an intellectual appetite, which, 



8 

unless it becomes diseased and perverted, will con- 
tinue to crave the enjoyment which the pursuit and 
attainment of truth afford. If this were not the case, 
it would be an anomaly in man, out of keeping entirely 
with every thing else pertaining to ourselves of which 
we are conscious. When we analyze the human con- 
stitution as far as our investigation reaches, we find 
every power and every faculty affording enjoyment by 
its suitable exercise in reference to its appropriate 
objects. It would therefore be strange indeed, if truth, 
the peculiar object of the nobler part of man, possess- 
ed no attraction for the mind ; or even if its power, 
when the mind is in a healthy state, were not para- 
mount. I know that in the absence of those circum- 
stances which are requisite to rouse the desire of which 
I speak, it may remain dormant. I know that other 
propensities, early and inordinately indulged, may pre- 
vent its excitement, or leave it to a feebleness of action 
in which its existence is scarcely felt ; and that from 
the same causes it may be so vitiated that its design, 
as an element of our nature, will be defeated. But the 
susceptibility is there : and by proper and timely ar- 
rangement and cultivation, it can be brought into ac- 
tion; and when thus rightly and duly exercised, it 
will attain a strength and yield an enjoyment which 
will make it a master passion of the man. 

The engaging and engrossing character of such ex- 
ercises, even when they are associated with, and in 
some measure dependant on the functions of our ani- 
mal nature, cannot have escaped your notice. The 
truth of harmony in sounds possesses a most captiva- 
ting power over the soul which has been roused by 



their influence. Idle and irksome as some would re- 
gard the employment of the musical amateur, it affords 
him a most delightful excitement, and ministers to 
him a luxury most absorbing. It is not the manual 
dexterity which he acquires in execution, or the admi- 
ration which the display of his skill secures, that en- 
gage and reward him, but the genuine sympathy of his 
soul with the truths of the science which he cultivates. 
In the perception, developement and application of 
these, there is an enjoyment which passes expression. 
His earnestness, his revery, his changing countenance, 
his, at times, suspended respiration, show the reality 
and intensity of the influence of harmony over his 
spirit, the power which the passion possesses, the de- 
light which its indulgence imparts. 

"We find a similar instance in the case of the artist, 
to whose peculiar pleasures the eye has become the in- 
dustrious and animated instrument ; who has been 
brought under the influence of the attractions of sym- 
metry and colours in their various forms and combina- 
tions. To those who are strangers to his passion, his 
quiet position with palette in hand, and a few feet of 
canvass on the easel before him, would scarcely be 
less intolerable than the forced steppings of a tread- 
mill ; and yet the painter's studio is his earthly para- 
dise. The visions of his imagination, as they come 
and go in succession, courting the creative action of 
his pencil, realize to him a vivid variety of scenery 
which no ordinary travel could furnish, and a choice 
companionship which the circles of common life could 
not afford. And when in a time of happy musing, the 
truth of nature, in some of her captivating forms and 



10 

sh ado wings, is fairly caught and faithfully transferred 
to the canvass, the successful sketch reflects a pleasure 
which no sensual indulgence could yield. It is not 
the applause which his production may obtain, or the 
price which it may command, that form his remunera- 
tion for the time and attention he has bestowed. He 
has had his enjoyment, in part, in the free excursions 
of his fancy in pursuit of the truth of nature ; and in 
contemplating her as caught and detained in the sim- 
ple frame which his art has animated with her pre- 
sence, his delight is prolonged. 

The precocity which this taste sometimes exhibits, 
and the lively pleasure which its indulgence imparts, 
are strikingly illustrated by the simple incidents in the 
early life of Sir Benjamin West. The attractions of 
this art, we are informed, won him when he had 
scarcely completed his sixth year ; won him, not by the 
influence of example, for he had never heard of a paint- 
er or even seen a picture. It was the response of his 
own sympathies to this peculiar aspect of the truths of 
nature, and that under circumstances which furnished 
not the slightest facility for their developement. His 
instruments and materials for gratifying the desire 
which stirred within him, were inappropriate and mea- 
ger indeed. Pen and ink were all he possessed, till 
some Indians who chanced to see his sketches instruct- 
ed him in the use of the red and yellow ochres, which 
they were accustomed to employ, and his own inge- 
nuity constructed a brush from the hair which he 
plundered from a domestic animal. A friend on a vis- 
it to the family was so much pleased with his rude 
paintings that he promised to send him the means of 



11 

indulging his taste ; the promised present soon arrived 
and was eagerly examined. It comprised the usual 
assortment of colours, oils and brushes, accompanied 
by prepared canvass and a few engravings. His bio- 
grapher relates that during the remainder of the day the 
young artist scarcely removed his eyes from his box 
and its contents. Sometimes he almost doubted his 
being master of so precious a treasure, and would take 
it up, merely to assure himself that it was real. Du- 
ring the night he woke more than once, and anxiously 
reached out his little hands to feel for the box which he 
had placed by his bed-side, half afraid that it was all a 
dream. Early dawn found him with his treasures in 
the garret, diligently at work. Every thing was now 
abandoned for the indulgence of his favourite pursuit. 
A truant from school, a recluse from his family, he lit- 
erally lived in the uncomfortable story to which he 
had stolen away, and there luxuriated in a world of his 
own. At last his teacher called to enquire for the ab- 
sentee, and this visit led to the discovery of his secret 
occupation. His mother sought him out in the place 
of his concealment, but so much was she delighted by 
the creation of his pencil which met her view on en- 
tering the apartment, that instead of a reprimand, she 
could only take him in her arms and embrace him 
with transports of affection. So early, so intense, so 
delightfully engrossing was this passion in the bosom 
of young West. We need not be surprised to find 
that under its governance, the Chester County child 
became the President of the Royal Academy, and the 
Quaker boy won his way to the rank of English 
knighthood. 



12 

Let it not for a moment be supposed that those 
forms and relations of truth which address themselves 
peculiarly to the understanding, have less power to 
rouse and gratify this passion of the soul. The Ar- 
cana of the natural world in its organization and pro- 
cesses, the propositions of the abstract sciences in their 
endless variety, appeal to the inquisitiveness of the 
mind with as much power, afford as much pleasurable 
excitement in pursuit, and certainly yield fuller and 
more elevated satisfaction in success. The familiar 
illustrations of this statement will readily occur to you. 
When the philosopher of Syracuse was requested by 
his learned friend and patron to devise some method 
for detecting the adulteration which he suspected in 
the precious metal which had been entrusted to an 
artisan to form into a crown, so completely did the 
problem take possession of the philosopher's mind, that 
it occupied his thoughts even during the moments of 
most pleasurable recreation. As he lay with relaxed 
frame, laving his limbs in a delicious bath, his mind 
was eagerly intent on the grateful pursuit. And when 
the water displaced by his body suggested the solution, 
the luxury of the bath was lost in the delight of the 
discovery. No voluptuary, in his highest revels, ever 
realized such pleasure as then thrilled his soul. No 
burst of Bacchanalian glee could compare with his 
enraptured Eu^xa! Eu^xa! 

When the distinguished sage of Samos completed 
his demonstration of the equality of the square of the 
hypotenuse and the sum of the squares of the other 
sides of a right angled triangle, there were no bounds 
to his joy. No explorer for hid treasures ever opened 



13 

a mine with the ecstacy he felt. A Hecatomb could 
not adequately express his gratitude and exultation. 

The experience of the great Newton, in connexion 
with his discovery of the secret mechanism of the 
heavens, will not be forgotten. The law of gravita- 
tion was indeed understood before his day, but the ex- 
tent of its application no one had imagined. The 
simple incident which, in the musings of his philoso- 
phical mind, started the train of thought which led to 
his sublime hypothesis, is known to every one. His 
was not a mind to rest in hypothesis. He immediately 
proceeded to subject his views to the test of careful 
calculation in reference to the nearest heavenly body. 
The result approximated what truth required, and the 
little discrepancy might have been explained away. 
But with the ingenuousness of a true philosopher, he 
abandoned his hypothesis as inadmissible, and sub- 
mitted to the disappointment. I need not remind 
you that the discrepancy was occasioned by the as- 
sumption that the earth's then admitted magnitude 
was correct. This false assumption vitiated his cal- 
culation and delayed his success. A few years af- 
terwards, when the dimensions of the earth were ac- 
curately ascertained, he renewed the trial, and found 
the result in perfect accordance with his former ex- 
pectations. We are told that such was his agitation, 
as he proceeded and perceived every figure bringing 
him nearer to the object of his hopes, that he was at 
last actually incapable of continuing the operation, and 
was obliged to request a friend to conclude it for him. 
The excitement of pursuit was too intense for endur- 
ance, the ecstaoy of success must have been unspeak- 



14 

able. To mention in this connexion the pleasures of 
sense, or those which arise from mere pride or ambi- 
tion, would be signal injustice to the joy of which we 
speak. No sensualist, no millenarian, no hero reeking 
with the blood of his vanquished foes and bending un- 
der the trophies of victory, felt as Newton did, when 
approaching the veil which the imperfection of hu- 
man knowledge left over the great works of nature, and 
lifting its folds, he looked in upon the magnificent 
mechanism of God's glorious universe. 

Our own Franklin too, with a devotion to science 
which the varied and pressing engagements of public 
life could not extinguish, continued to indulge himself 
in his favourite pursuit, and enjoyed the excitement 
of investigation and the satisfaction of success. When 
he conceived the idea of the identity of electricity and 
the material of lightning, his mind started on an in- 
quiry delightfully animating in its progress, and most 
gratifying in the issue. When his own ingenuity had 
devised the simple expedient which was to form the 
test of his conjecture, when he stood out upon the com- 
mon with his kite floating in the air, and his eye 
anxiously traversing the line which detained it, and 
by which the truth or falsity of his views was to be 
determined, he must have realized the liveliest plea- 
sure of intellectual excitement, and when the bristling 
strands gave proof of the success of his experiment, 
the brilliant truth which he had discovered must have 
electrified his spirit with delight. A conqueror of 
kingdoms would make a gainful barter, could he traf- 
fic all his triumphs for the victory which signalized 
that moment, a victory not over worms of the dust, but 



15 

over the wildest element of the skies, achieved not 
by might or multitude, but by the simple appliance of 
a childish toy in the hand of a philosopher. 

I am perfectly aware that the instances to which we 
have adverted involve the peculiar zest which is im- 
parted by the consciousness of being an original 
discoverer. But then it has been properly remarked 
that to the uninstructed all the truths of science are 
yet virtually undiscovered truths, and unfold them- 
selves to every successive explorer with as much 
freshness and force as they exhibited to the first 
adventurer. The eyes of Columbus and his crew 
robbed the western world of none of the beauty of 
its bays, or grandeur of its forests and mountains. 
The same scenery, in all its attraction of novelty and 
sublimity, still courts the attention and repays the toil 
of the modern tourist. The early Indian, whose ear 
was first stunned by the noise, and whose eye first 
gazed in wonder on the foaming waters of the great 
cataract of the north, exhausted none of its impres- 
siveness. It still commands its annual and increasing 
crowd of strangers, as impressed and delighted as if 
no others had ever trodden its wild and awful preci- 
pice, and trembled at the roar of its mighty waters. 
Thus the pioneer in any particular region of science 
cannot so appropriate its beauties and its fruits as to 
leave it plundered, profitless, and uninviting. It 
preserves its novelty and exuberance for each ardent 
adventurer, as if none had before viewed its richness 
or dwelt amidst its delights. Other pleasures there 
are, which do become antiquated and obsolete — which 
are adulterated and exhausted by participation ; and 



16 

hence their comparative worthlessness. But truth 
parts with none of its power by age, and knowledge 
loses none of its attractiveness by distribution. No 
one who has ever experienced their spell, will com- 
plain that his enjoyment is curtailed by those who 
may have preceded him, or admit that by long fami- 
liarity they have ceased to charm. When they once 
truly please, they captivate for life, and he who has 
been won cordially to enter their enclosures will covet 
to spend and be spent in their fascinating service. 

Nor let it be supposed that this appetite for truth, 
this thirst for knowledge, is a feeble and inefficient 
passion. Judge it my young friends as you estimate 
the force of other feelings, by its indisputable effects, 
and it must be pronounced a paramount power of the 
soul. In innumerable instances it has proved itself 
capable of coping successfully with opposition and 
embarrassments, against which, prior to experience, 
we should have considered it vain to contend. It has 
been found to live and nourish amidst difficulties and 
discouragements by which the strongest propensities 
of oar nature have been subdued. It has kindled in 
the lowliest and most obscure conditions of society, 
and burned unquenchably in despite of the extinguish- 
ing influence of worldly penury. It has fired the bo- 
som of the slave, and sundering his ignoble bonds, raised 
him to the most honourable ranks of philosophy. It 
has lifted its subjects from the loom, the last, and the 
anvil, to the most distinguished seats of literature and 
science. Epictetus, we are told, passed many years in 
cruel servitude, and when his freedom was obtained, 
he pursued his studies in a comfortless cabin without 



17 

a door ; with no furniture but a small table, a narrow 
bedstead, and a paltry coverlet. Cleanthes indulged 
his favourite passion whilst he maintained himself as a 
common porter. The oboli with which he paid his 
preceptor's fee were earned by the most menial em- 
ployments. I draw water, said he, and do any other 
sort of work that offers, that I may give myself up to 
philosophy without being a burden to any one. Eras- 
mus, when a student at Paris, was almost in rags ; but 
it was not his tattered garments that distressed him, 
he was most sensible to his want of the means for 
literary gratification. "When I get money, said he, I 
will buy first Greek books, and then clothes — and 
many is the student who has cheerfully acquiesced in 
the scantiest raiment and the coarsest fare, for the 
privilege of indulging his love of learning. 

You will readily recollect cases in which this 
passion has discovered a most amazing and ingenious 
force in surmounting the disadvantage of physical 
defects which seemed to forbid its indulgence. If we 
were required to name a bereavement which would 
seem to close the avenues of knowledge, and imprison 
the mind, we should, perhaps, specify the affliction of 
blindness. And yet, not only have persons, deprived 
of vision from their childhood, managed to make 
respectable attainments in learning, some have risen to 
such eminence in literature and science as to become 
distinguished teachers. The well known case of 
Sanderson is in point. In his sixth year, we are in- 
formed, he was visited with a disease which not only 
destroyed his sight, but extirpated the organ. Yet at 
the free school in his vicinity, he contrived, it is hard 






18 

to conceive how, to familiarize himself with the lan- 
guages. From the friends by whom he w r as surroun- 
ded he quickly gained all the instruction they could 
impart in the elements of arithmetic and geometry. 
His avidity was not satisfied, but only stimulated by 
these attainments. Employing others to read for him, 
he made himself master of the Greek mathematicians. 
His eminent success is fully attested by the fact of his 
appointment to the professorship at Cambridge, which 
had been filled by Sir Isaac Newton, and also by. the 
learned works which he has left on different branch- 
es of the exact sciences. This passion of his soul 
produced an ingenuity and thrift — an industry and 
perseverance in catering for its indulgence, which 
seemed almost supernatural, and brought into subser- 
viency to its purposes extraordinary ways and means, 
which appeared more than compensation for the 
appalling loss of vision. 

In view of these imperfect statements, then, we may 
conclude, that the appetite, the play of which is so 
pleasant as to determine one to seek its gratification at 
the expense of the other strong propensities of our 
nature — which, when once fairly excited, triumphs 
over the hinderances occasioned by lowliness of birth 
and extremity of penury — aye, even over physical 
defects and infirmities, training the powers and facul- 
ties which remain, to unusual and almost incredible 
instrumentality in supplying the place of those which 
are lacking, must be a master feeling of the man. And 
although in every individual it is not productive of the 
same amount of pleasure, or capable of the same 
measure of force, yet secure in any one the develope- 



19 

ment of which it is susceptible, and you secure it 
a dominion which God and nature designed it to have. 
If these things are so, then we discover, as I con- 
ceive, the great business of the responsible process of 
education. This susceptibility of the intellectual na- 
ture is to be reached and roused ; this appetite is to be 
awakened, stimulated, nourished and rightly guided. 
To this, the appeal is to be made early and directly. 
By the presentation and contact of appropriate truth 
the mind is to be put in action, and so made conscious 
of the satisfaction which such action and its effects 
produce. Here is the beginning. Till this is ac- 
complished, nothing is done. All else is little better 
than the workings of an automaton, or the spasmodic 
motion of galvanic experiment. The life of education 
is latent till the genuine love of learning is evolved. 
I say, therefore, the appeal for this purpose should be 
made early. If parents, instead of pampering the 
fleshly appetites of their offspring, and habituating 
them to seek their pleasure in ministering to their 
animal propensities — as if the intellectual principle 
were not imparted in childhood, but implanted only 
when the abundant and rife growth of carnal desires 
must dwarf and deform it — if they would faithfully 
address themselves to this principle in the first hours 
of its susceptibility, and present to it the grateful in- 
centive of simple truth, and so acquaint it with its 
resources of pleasure, in its own proper action and 
acquirements, we might expect that what is now 
regarded as rare precocity, would become ordinary 
developement; and, instead of the inferior appetites so 
almost invariably getting the ascendency, we might 



20 

hope to find them kept in becoming subordination by 
a noble love of knowledge, and zest for truth; but 
then the labour of exploring for this vital part, of 
studying out and selecting and applying the ma- 
terial by which this appetite is to be provoked — yes — 
here is the difficulty. To coax or scourge the child, to 
dose and burden the mind with, to it, unmeaning and 
worse than useless phrases, is so much easier and 
more rapid than to condescend to the weakness of its 
faculties and ascertain and furnish just what they can 
appropriate and enjoy, that in most instances the bribe 
or the rod is preferred. The child is tasked, an 
odious word in this connexion, that the parent may 
be spared ; the pursuit of knowledge is associated with 
pains and penalties, and regarded as an irksome em- 
ployment to which nothing can reconcile one but the 
hope of escaping punishment, or the prospect of getting 
gain. 

And is it surprising that when youth, thus misguided 
and prejudiced, are transferred to other instructors for 
advancement, it should be found almost necessary to 
maintain, in some degree, the mischievous features of 
this unnatural system? That instead of the honour- 
able relation as helpers of their pupils' joy, they should 
be constrained to serve as police officers to detect and 
remedy habits of irregularity formed and fostered at 
home ? That instead of the pleasing occupation of 
training the healthful mind in its boundings, from 
strength to strength, from one degree of knowledge to 
another, gladdened by conscious growth and rejoicing 
in increasing acquirements, they should be compelled 
to drive by the dread of public disgrace, or tempt by 



•21 

the influence of rivalry, or lure by the prospect of 
some pitiful outward distinction, thus stirring up to 
greater force the lower and degrading passions, minis- 
tering nourishment to pride, envy and ambition ? And 
what is the legitimate result of this whole miserable 
process? It may occasion genuine scholarship. In 
the midst and in despite of it all, intellectual regenera- 
tion may occur. The pure appetite for knowledge, on 
its own account, may spring up, we know not how or 
why, and work out its proper effects. But the natural 
tendency of this process is to produce a morbid mental 
action, not a genuine love of truth ; an action which 
will remit when the extraneous stimulants are removed, 
or court their continuance under new forms on emer- 
ging into the world, making its subjects, not sincere 
seekers for science, but wranglers for distinction, not 
candid, frank, generous citizens, but bigoted and bitter 
partizans, reckless combatants for political ascendency 
and personal aggrandizement ; not calm, though firm 
supporters of right, but selfish intriguers for rule, 
knowing no patriotism but such as secures their per- 
sonal pre-eminence, no public spirit but such as pro- 
motes their private interest. Would that this were all 
fancy! but it is not so; it is a melancholy fact, such a 
generation abounds throughout our land, and meet them 
where you may, in civil or ecclesiastical connexion, they 
are the country's curse. If the crying and increasing 
corruption, the loud complaints of which come up in 
all directions, is to be checked and corrected, we must 
have men of a different spirit to do the work, and to 
have them they must first receive a different training. 
Instead of being incited to mental action by an ap- 



22 

peal to the sensual, sordid, selfish principles of our 
nature, they must be taught to feel the excellency 
and power of truth, and rendered sensible of the real 
pleasure which results from its pursuit and attainment. 
Instead of coveting it for the worldly wealth which 
it may qualify one to gain, it must be coveted as itself 
the treasure. Instead of being desired for the distinc- 
tion which it may secure, it must be desired for its own 
lustre and the illumination which its presence produces. 
Its pursuit, instead of being submitted to as a tedious' 
toil, to be remunerated by acquiring the command of 
means of gratification in other ways, must be regarded 
as itself a present positive pleasure. This may be, 
this should be, and I trust this will become more than 
ever the spirit of our literary institutions. Its preva- 
lence would do more to maintain the necessary order 
and propriety contemplated by college laws, than all 
the pledges which inconsiderate youths could utter, 
or all the surveillance which the most vigilant faculty 
could exercise. For decency by restraint, there would 
be decorum of free will ; for labour from irksome dis- 
cipline, there would be diligence from delight. And 
what a transformation would thus be effected, so far 
as the student is concerned, in the usages and habits 
of a college course ! One of this spirit, would never 
regard the recurrence of study hours as an interrup- 
tion, but greet them as a renewal of his gratification. 
He would not consider his room as a place of durance, 
he would seek it as the scene of his richest delight. 
And his experience then, during the moments of most 
intense application, would authorize him to adopt the 
seeming paradox, " Labor ipse voluptas." In his as- 

L. ©v <**, 



23 

sociation with others in the same pursuits, he would 
proportionably escape the disturbing and painful stir- 
rings of envy and mortified pride. The satisfaction 
which his own proficiency would afford, would be 
augmented by the progress of his companions in study, 
and the generous sympathy thus generated would 
form an alliance which no future separation would 
break, nor advancing years impair. In withdrawing 
from these halls of science, he would not present the 
pitiable spectacle too often witnessed, of collapsed fac- 
ulties, mental torpor, total abandonment of intellectual 
pursuits, the consequence of unnatural excitement by 
inappropriate means. The healthful appetite and salu- 
tary habits here cherished would be perpetuated. 
Even if his secular avocations should be of a nature not 
absolutely requiring the continued pursuit of literature 
and science, they would be resorted to for recreation ; 
and whilst they yielded him a pleasure which would 
preserve him from the vitiating amusements of the 
world, they would shed a refinement over his ordinary 
business, and give to his character that elevation and 
attractiveness which are so lovely in the intercourse of 
life. A mind thus imbued and thus trained is its own 
treasure. Those vicissitudes by which others are be- 
reft in a moment of the portions which they prize, can- 
not effect its resources — they are inalienable, indefeisi- 
ble. No circumstances in which he may be placed, 
can deprive him of their use and enjoyment. Alone 
or in society — at home or abroad — in health or in sick- 
ness — in a palace, a cottage, or a dungeon, his sources 
of enjoyment are at command. Unjust power may 
plunder one of his outward possessions. Calumny may 



24 

rob him of his reputation. The fickleness of popular 
feeling may displace him from the station of honour 
which he had attained. But his mind in its capaci- 
ties and acquirements is beyond and above these influ- 
ences. They are emphatically and independently his 
own. 

Such are the men we want in these times of wild 
speculation, pernicious excitement, and unprincipled 
dissension. We need men who have learned to love 
the truth with an affection which will determine them 
to follow it through evil as well as good report, and to 
stand by it at every hazard. Who will neither desert, 
deny, nor obscure it for friend or foe. Who will ap- 
preciate, pursue and countenance sound learning and 
genuine science — men whose minds have become well 
balanced by their solid acquirements, and whose hearts 
have been liberalized by the generous influence of use- 
ful learning. These are the men we need to aid in 
resisting the intellectual licentiousness, the phrenzied 
fanaticism, the rank intolerance, and the exclusive sel- 
fish partizanship which are withering and weakening 
us as a people. To oar seminaries we look, anxiously 
and prayerfully look, for the supply, and just as they 
succeed in bringing the youthful mind under the in- 
fluence of wholesome truth, and wakening and feed- 
ing its healthful desires, accustoming it to feel the 
delight of pursuing and possessing its appropriate trea- 
sures, will our public institutions furnish what the 
best friends of our country crave and justly claim. 

In speaking of truth and science and knowledge, you 
will not misunderstand me. No one will for a mo- 
ment suppose that the views of the speaker are restric- 



25 

ted to mere secular learning. This would indeed be 
to surrender the precious principles on which our 
venerated college was founded, on which chiefly 
its patrons rely for its prosperity and usefulness, 
and, apart from which, its influence might as well 
make us tremble, as hope. Mere secular learning 
is of doubtful utility. The history of the world shows 
its equivocal nature. It may prove a blessing — it 
may become a curse. It is truth — but it is imperfect, 
partial truth; and to prevent its perversion, the com- 
plement which revelation affords is demanded ; and 
worthy of all honour is the institution which, in its 
system of training, openly and avowedly employs this 
— studiously uses the truth, the whole truth, and 
nothing but the truth. 

It is in this view of our Alma Mater, that I find her 
peculiar and commanding claims to my unfeigned 
confidence and affection. I love to think of her in this, 
her true posture and employment. Displaying in one 
hand the scrolls of sound science, in the other spirit- 
edly poising high the record of inspiration. I love to 
think of her, tracing with distinctness the interesting 
processes of the natural world, and pointing with 
clearness and skill to every star in the firmament, but 
carefully showing all in connection with the great Sun 
of Righteousness — the one grand centre and source of 
all influence — of light, life and glory. 

So long as this is done, her sons can through no 
delinquency on her part fail to answer the expectations 
of kindred and country, or come short of the great end 
of education. Some, it may be, may not long survive 
to adorn and bless the land of their birth. Blasted in 

4 



26 

the freshness of their bloom, parental anguish may soon 
pour its bitter tears over their early grave, and nothing 
remain of them on earth, but the sad recollection of 
the rich promise they here gave, and the solemn tomb 
under which they sleep. The asterisked columns of 
our Catalogue affectingly remind us that genius and 
worth furnish no immunity from the assaults of dis- 
ease, or the stroke of death; that the physical deli- 
cacy and intellectual sensitiveness which form the 
usual accompaniments of extraordinary developements 
of youthful excellence, are the causes of permanent 
decay, and often serve but to brighten the mark, and 
invite and direct the earlier aim of the destroyer. 
If it were not so, many whose sun has gone down 
before noon, would be still shining in their strength, 
and shedding their salutary influence over the spheres 
which have been darkened by their disappearance. 

Sorrowful as the contemplation of such instances 
may render us, yet we find solace in the assurance 
that if the principles and spirit for which this college 
was established are truly imbibed, such early release 
is but early rest ; the gloom is for survivors, the glory 
is theirs ; and at each anniversary their requiem may 
be chaunted, not in strains of sorrow, but in tones of 
triumph. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




021 729 498 8 •■# 



